Proud Little Brats
by A. Z. Erins
Summary: Gruvia, NaLu, Jerza. AU Collab Fic with Snowelle. On the surface, Fairy Tail Academy appeared to be like every other boarding school. But that really wasn't the case. Getting dragged in to be in Lucy's charity bachelor auction by Natsu wasn't Gray's best moment, Erza may have liked astronomy more than she let on, and Juvia's the new girl. Charity balls, dates, and guns.


**A/N: Hey guys! So this is a fic in collaboration with my friend and author Snowelle! That means that we will be alternating chapters but they will all be posted on both of our pages. Also, we've talked a little bit about where we mainly want the plot to head but besides that, we have planned NOTHING. MWAHAHAHA. *ahem* So basically, Snowelle is seeing this chapter as the finished product for the first time as you, my lovelies, are so feel special. We are just going to have to build off of what the other author writes no matter what, no complaints. SO this should be fun, guys. Now on to the story. Lovelies, enjoy. Snowelle, get writing!...but also, enjoy.**

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Chapter 1

By A.Z. Erins

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It was raining that day. Juvia was always happiest when it rained. While the other girls mourned the loss of blue sky and yellow luminescence, Juvia relished the feel of cool drops of water pelting her forearms under blankets of gray. While the other girls hurried inside with their hands held over their heads to block the mischievous beads of moisture, Juvia luxuriated in the sensation of chilled streams running from her hairline and down her neck. Rain was liberating, and she had long come to terms with her insane love of it.

Truly, nothing was as refreshing as rain. Nothing as poetic or romantic.

She pushed herself off of the softened mud, just barely missing catching her bare arms on the barbed wire, brought the gun parallel with eye level, and fired. Twice.

* * *

"Aw, Juvia! You're tracking mud into the hall!" Lucy cried out in horror. She scurried over to where Juvia had entered the room, grabbing a mop that had been propped along the wall from previous use and viciously scrubbed at the mud marks staining the wooden floor. "And you're late. Honestly. I don't know why you train in the rain. It's muddy out and gross!" Lucy stopped scrubbing for a moment and glanced at Juvia in awe. Her eyes widened fractionally and she chuckled lightly. "Your hair's dripping and you have mud on your cheeks," she said, reaching out to touch.

Juvia jerked away before Lucy's fingers could make contact. Lucy's mouth formed a quiet little "o" in surprise.

"Ah...sorry." Juvia quickly corrected herself and edged back towards the blonde girl. "Go ahead."

Lucy waited a moment, then smiled warmly. Juvia held still while the blonde rubbed at the caked mud on her cheek.

"Er...It's hardened a bit. Wait here! I'll be back with a wet towel," she exclaimed, turning and walking briskly away with the intent of returning in a moment. Juvia watched her go.

Becoming friends with Lucy Heartfilia had sort of just happened and Juvia didn't really know how. It wasn't like she went out of her way to make friends or anything…not that she didn't want any. Well, she didn't think she _needed_ any at least. After all, she had somehow survived seventeen years of…seventeen years of…of…something without any friends. It wasn't fun. Juvia wasn't complaining though, oh no, Juvia had learned to accept it long ago. She had told herself that she _had to_ accept it or she would never be happy. Her life would be a never-ending barrage of self pity and loathing and Juvia didn't want that. So she accepted it. Despite having done thus, she never really was happy anyway, though, was she?

So…this friends thing? It was new for Juvia. It was _all_ new for Juvia. New school, new (first) friends, and new Juvia. Having a friendly face to walk across the quad to classes with was new. Not having to wait for one of the other students to be stuck, cruelly, in their minds, with her as a lab partner or have to sit through their displeasure at being partnered with her was new. It was all new. But Juvia wasn't complaining, oh no.

Honestly, it had been quite disorientating at first. Juvia had gone in with armor on and shields up, so to speak, only to find that no one was shooting. Taken off guard, Juvia just ignored it. She'd never needed anyone to hold her hand before, so why now? Juvia had always been a loner. To be honest, she didn't even know herself if she had chosen to be a loner or if it had just happened. She had grown into her teenage years on her own. But then she had come here, and everything had changed. Where was here? Here was where sweet, blonde girls like Lucy Heartfilia wormed their was through Juvia's protective layers like fish through water or where cute dwarves like Levy McGarden sat next to her in Anatomy on her first day or where fiery brunettes like Cana Alberona offered Juvia a gulp from her flask behind the science building. These weren't bad things. Juvia sort of liked Lucy and Levy and even Cana. Well…she sort of liked it _here._

"Cana! You get your drunken self out of that corner and start hanging those streamers or I swear, I'll come over there and sober you up myself!"

"Bite me."

"Arrghhh!"

"Lucy-chan!"

"What, Levy?"

"I think I broke-"

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence."

Juvia found an earnest smile on her face as she took in the scene unfolding in front of her. She found that she truly could not wait to become a part of the group here. She wanted to run off to Cana's side and laugh at Lucy's bemoaning expression. She wanted to join Elfman in furtively popping as many balloons as he could to try to wake up Zeref, who was sleeping underneath a table, before Lucy noticed the mischief. She wanted to join in all of it. There was a lot more to Juvia's history that she could have brooded over, that no one knew, in that moment, but she didn't want to. She wanted to be _here_. She hastily scrubbed at the mud on her cheek, realizing that the promised towel was not coming anytime soon and ran off to join Erza Scarlet at the photo booth.

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"Lucy-chan!"

"Agh! Natsu, get off of me! What are you doing here?"

The pink-haired boy fixed his black eyes on her brown ones. "Professor Dreyar gave me a fucking detention!" He threw his hands up into the air in desperation before meeting Lucy's eyes again. "So...yeah...I'm here to help with the charity ball for detention!"

The boy's despair seemed to be only momentary because at that moment, he was bouncing on the balls his feet itching for something to do. Lucy had learned the hard way to always a little wary of Natsu as he tended to be slightly...wily. He leaned closer to her waiting to be told what to do, and she inched slightly away.

"Ah...what did you do to get detention, Natsu?"

He rocked back on his heels, a strange mix of glee and distaste taking over his features.

"It was this morning. We were just learning about electricity in Dreyar's physics class, ya know, and we doing some experiments and stuff and I'm partnered with Gray, right?" Natsu made a face of repugnance at the mention of Gray and Lucy rolled her eyes at the boy's silly display of rivalry. He shot her an earnest glance.

Lucy nodded warily and gestured for him to continue.

"And next thing I know," Natsu resumed, "Gray's on fire and-"

"You caught Gray on fire?" Lucy interrupted harshly, incredulous. "Are you serious?! You idiot, I can't believe this! And-and...how does that even happen? Oh my God! Is he okay!? I mean-"

"Calm down! He's fine." Natsu's eyes radiated disapproval, as though he simply couldn't understand why Lucy would be upset over the thought of Gray Fullbuster on fire. He seemed to think it was quite possibly one of the funniest things that could have happened and was honestly glad for the excitement. Oh _of course._ To him, _of course_ Gray would be fine. It was all just a joke, after all. "It was just the sleeve of his shirt. That girl...Juvia, yeah, she put it out. Oh!" The boy doubled over as his body was wracked with laughs. "You should've seen his face! She sprayed the fire extinguisher all over him. Oh, his face! He was not happy."

Lucy glanced at Juvia working on the other side of the room with Erza on the photo booth and felt her shoulders droop as she brought her eyes at Natsu in disbelief. Oh, what was she going to do with this boy.

She sighed, recognizing that reasoning with Natsu about why he should, maybe, care about _other people catching on fire_ wasn't even worth it. "Fine. Go help Levy with the lights."

Natsu flashed her a grin and a wink and bounded off to help Levy.

Honestly. He was always getting into trouble, Lucy thought, as she oversaw the other students in the room, making little markings on her checklist of things to do before tomorrow night. She blew a couple of blonde strands of hair out of her face before sitting in one of the chairs that had been placed and decorated at the side of the room for guests who would choose to sit during the festivities. At least work was actually being accomplished now. A week ago, Lucy could barely get anyone to listen to her, let alone actually decorate the hall that they had rented. Looking around the room now, she could actually begin to see the setting for tomorrow's charity ball materialize. Thank God.

They were raising money for the school and Lucy had naturally volunteered to head the organization committee. Why had she done that again?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind when she heard something explode.

Instinctively, her training kicked in and she ducked, blocking her most vulnerable areas and tucking her head behind her hands.

Eventually the smoke cleared and it was ascertained that there was no danger.

"NATSU!"

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"Ah, I'm so tired." Lucy collapsed into Erza's lap sleepily and yawned. "Remember how Natsu fucking _blew up_ some of the lighting fixtures today? Well, he told me that he'd make it up to me somehow and so I told him that I'm signing him up to be one of the bachelors for tomorrow, but you know what the idiot said? He said 'I can't...but I'll get one of my friends to do it for you, Lucy-_chan_!'" The girl scrunched her face up in distaste. "He better...we're still short a couple bachelors and bachelorettes."

The older girl didn't react, remaining still on the bench that she had perched herself upon. Lucy popped back up.

"Erza?"

No response.

"Erz-"

"Shh!"

Erza's eyebrows were drawn together in intense concentration as she stared across the campus grounds and something in the distance.

Lucy whirled around on the bench, still partly in Erza's lap to distinguish what had caught the redhead's attention.

"What? I don't see...it's too dark to see any-"

"Shh!"

Lucy shut up and waited.

Without a word, Erza stood up suddenly. Lucy let out an undignified yelp as her rear hit the ground, which was still quite wet from the earlier downpour, rather forcefully.

"I'm going to join that." Erza stated matter-of-factly, pivoted on her heel, and stalked off without another glance at Lucy.

"Wha-?" Lucy strained her torso a second time to find what Erza had seen. In the distance, she could just barely see a ring of several boys and girls seated on a blanket in the grass in the middle of the campus quad. They had what looked like a telescope propped up in the space between them and were taking turns speaking. "What. The Astronomy Club?"

There wasn't an answer.

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**A/N: Yes, yes, I know. You may have questions. Guess you'll just have to wait for Snowelle to answer them! Update coming ASAP because she's on break. No excuses, Snowelle! I'm on to you.**

**Fav/follow if you enjoy.**

**As always, review make us type faster! It's really the strangest thing isn't it?**


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